June 29 (UPI) – Virgin Galactic achieved a significant milestone on Thursday as it completed its first-ever commercial spaceflight. The flight carried three passengers, each of whom paid $450,000 for the ride.
The mission, called SpaceShipTwo, took off from New Mexico. The VSS Unity spacecraft was flown aboard the VMS Eve Spaceship Carrier aircraft before separating from Eve at an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet. From there, it flew to the edge of space under its own power.
The VSS Unity was piloted by Nicole Pecile and Mike Masucci, and it carried Col. Walter Villadei and Lt. Angelo Landolfi from the Italian Air Force, as well as Pantaleone Carlucci from the Italian National Research Council to suborbital space. Accompanying them was Virgin Galactic’s Astronaut Instructor Colin Bennett.
“‘Galactic 01’ marks our first commercial spaceflight, and we’re honored to have been chosen by the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council to support their first space research mission, ‘Virtue 1’. Virgin Galactic’s research missions will revolutionize access to space for government and research institutions,” said Virgin Galactic CEO Micheal Colglazier in a statement.
Throughout the mission, Virgin Galactic provided live updates on Twitter. They tweeted the take-off at 10:39 a.m., followed by updates on the crew’s preparations and the VSS Unity’s journey to space.
By 11:37 a.m., Virgin Galactic confirmed that the VSS Unity had reached space with a tweet that said, “Benvenuti nello spazio, Galactic 01! Our crew from the Italian Air Force and Italian National Research Council have reached space.”
The flight ended successfully at 11:49 a.m. with a smooth landing at Spaceport New Mexico.
Celebrating the mission’s success, Colglazier said, “Today, our team successfully flew six people and more than a dozen research payloads to space in VSS Unity, our unique suborbital science lab. This historic flight was our first commercial flight and our first dedicated commercial research mission.”
Looking to the future, Colglazier shared plans for their next commercial spaceflight, “Galactic 02,” which is scheduled for August. Virgin Galactic aims to continue monthly space missions with the VSS Unity while scaling their spaceship fleet for a global audience.
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